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Just so that we are clear … I’ve stated that I won’t complain about the cold weather in light of the perfect conditions for my HM last month. I fully intend to stand by that statement. However, I never said that I would stop from verbally abusing meteorologists for being wrong 123% of the time. Also, I never said that I wouldn’t comment on the weather. Yesterday, I pounded our incompetent friends who stand in front of a blank screen mouthing words they cannot stand behind. Today, I will only say, I felt was really cold this morning. It’s not that the low digits matter all that much. It’s really about how your body interprets and responds to the cold weather. In that regard, the back half of this morning’s mini LR was dicey.
Since it’s Super Bowl Sunday and these hot wings won’t eat themselves, I needed to burn some calories this morning. I had nothing ambitious in mind … 10-13 miles were my goal. Physically, I could have gone for much longer, but right now there is no need. As long as there is no snow, I’m sticking with running on the dirt path / trails. Despite being frozen solid, I imagine the dirt still gives more than asphalt. The plan was for 4+ loops around the extended Bridle Path and some other stuff depending on how I felt. As expected, I shuffled along for the first two and then was felled by an emergency restroom break. It was a minor diversion to the restroom, but took my out of way. I can’t tell you in “G” rate language how annoyed I was at this interruption as it nearly ruined a pretty good run.
My face was cold, but everything else felt fine … even my schizophrenic hands … until I started up again. Even though the wind chill was in the single digits, I’m sure I was sweating underneath 3 layers of gloves (1 lightweight and mittens with inner and outer shell). Around mile 6.5 a bit of anxiety set in … tips of my fingers and thumb were going numb. I couldn’t risk stopping again, so I alternated between shaking them furiously while I was running and just letting my arms hang straight down to get blood moving south. It took longer than I would have liked, but by mile 9, I could sense feeling was coming back. As painful as this was, I was more frightened about cutting short the run … that would have absolutely ruined my day without question.
As I was finishing up the final lap, I had a decision to make: stop or add a mini 1.6 loop. I ended the run … 11.5 miles @ 9:22 pace. 13+ would have been nice, but I actually stopped because my legs were feeling strong. Yesterday, I kind of bumbled along for 8 miles feeling ok and shaking out the gunk. The last 2 miles of this morning’s run, I had that feeling from the HM … strong and could push the pedal if I needed. I don’t bother with splits on LR’s but I was likely moving in the 8:00s. However, I decided to shut it down since I want some reserves going into speed work mid-week. Tomorrow will be a tasty little recovery run ahead of Tuesday night intervals … marking the début of the light as air – Asics Piranha’s!